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Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

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Best Gluten-Free Bread

Bread!! The one thing I never thought I could live without!

I used to joke that if ever I was put on a bread and water diet, I wouldn't suffer a bit!!!

But alas... I found out I was Celiac... and that the bread and water diet could kill me!

So I looked and looked for a gluten-free bread!

I VERY quickly found out that the taste, the texture, the smell, the GLUTEN could NOT be duplicated.... and I finally just resolved to live without bread... the gluten-free 'bread' was not worth the exercise of slicing!

UNTIL!
I discovered white bean flour... which is a little hard to get but some shops that carry gluten-free flours will order it in for you! Or you can order it on-line from Bob's Red Mill.

And yes... it passes my litmus test! Non-Celiacs like it! My daughter's mother-in-law said it tasted just like the bread her mother used to make!

So if you are Celiac or are baking for a Celiac, I am soo happy to share my recipe!

Sift together dry ingredients and then add to the liquid, beating hard for 3 or 4 minutes . You will see the batter change and become smooth . (Consistency needs to be right.. batter that is too thick will not rise .. too thin it will rise and then fall. If it looks like a too-thick cake batter then it is probably just about right!) While you are mixing the dough, you will smell a slight beany smell from the 'bean' flour... but this is the only time. When it is baking or you are eating it, it has a very 'whole-wheat' bread smell and taste!

This recipe makes one regular size loaf, but since I have a daughter who is also Celiac I divided the dough into two mid-size pans so I have a loaf for each of us.

I line the bottom of the pans with wax paper and lightly oil the pans. Gluten-free baking tends to stick more than regular wheat flour.

6. To rise I put the pans in the oven with the oven light on....and cover the pans with a towel. Let rise for about an hour until loaves round over the top of the pan.

7. Bake for 45 minutes at 350' F - or until tops are nicely browned - do not underbake. This bread keeps well, also freezes well and after the first day is good toasted !

(I adapted this recipe from Bob's Red Mill recipe for bean bread in a bread machine)

PS. Karen asked some good questions in her comment and I thought I would just post the answers here for others who might wonder the same questions !

YES! this bread is great for French toast.... as you can see here......

"have a bite and see!"

This bread stays soft on the counter for several days.. and after toasting does NOT turn to cardboard or cement!

and Yes.. you can use it in casseroles or in your hamburger patties mix if you are used to adding bread, or make your own croutons.

Who am I ? I am a grandmother. My two granddaughters are the joy of my life.
I am in a forced early retirement due to health issues , but life is still good and I enjoy the freedom this new phase in my life has brought.
I have always loved books,loved learning and observing and sharing the insights I have gleaned along my life’s journey. I have for the most part of my adult life been in some capacity a part time ‘teacher’ , Sunday School, sewing teacher in a private school, kid’s clubs, ladies groups, bible study groups, or through the written page.
I have been a Christian for most of my life and I have no greater joy than that of studying God’s Word, and learning to ‘Know Him”. My favorite verse is Jeremiah 9:23,24. To share insights that flash across my mind is to me exciting… So for that purpose I decided to fling my thoughts onto the internet highway … if for no other reason than to have an incentive to record them.
If you are reading this…. please know that I welcome you ! and invite you to come back……
in His love, julie

Julie, your bread is so amazing looking, I was so surprised to see it look like batter in the pan. I think this is wonderful of you to post the recipe . .. and I believe you when you say it is the Best Gluten Free Bread. . .everyone who knows Julie. . . knows she tells the truth.

It is so good to see your gluten free recipes. I'm sure there will be many peaople who will viist our blog just to find your recipes. The baked bread looks wonderful. Just like with regular bread recipes, many poeple are afraid to try them, but it sometimes takes afew flops to get it right. If I had to ajust my eating I would work on this until I perfected it. Living without bread would be so hard for me. Definately my weakness food. Kathy

Oh, I am so glad I found your site. I have known I have Celiac for about four months and have not found a good loaf of bread yet. I have not tried mixes, just make it myself. And almost all have been soggy, gooey, etc in the middle which I understand is too much liquid. I found I do not like the garbonza and fava flours and finally found a place on the net where I could order navy bean flour. I ordered it a month ago tomorrow and they finally sent me a notice it would be here last Friday (it wasn't), but I am so hoping I will not have the same bitter taste with these white bean flours. I am eagerly awaiting my white bean flour so I can try yourrecipe. It looks so good. I never thought I was a bread eater until I couldn't have it anymore.

it is amazing that no one has made your "best gluten-free bread" you can not eat a picture to see how it taste. went to bobs red mill in the portland area got the ingrediants. followed your directions and was happy with the outcome roger in gresham or

I was soooo happy to find this recipe! I recently found out that I have a severe wheat and corn allergy (and many more) and I am missing bread like crazy!!! Do you know what I can sub the cornstarch for? Thanks so much! BTW, I can have gluten, just not wheat and try to avoid Spelt and Rye since they are so similar in protein structure! Thanks!

Wow, this is the first recipe I've found that I have all the ingredients for in my cupboard! I'm craving bread tonight and am going to try out your recipe right away. I am going to substitute the eggs with flax seed & water paste and will let you know how it turns out. Thanks for sharing!

OH THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU!!! :) My dear cousin just got diagnosed with Celiac, and the poor chicky has just been eating meat, fruit and veg for fear of gluten contamination. Your recipes will help so much!! Althuogh I am a few states away from her, I'm sure I can whip up this bread and mail it out to her. Thanks again, so much!

I have also been searching for a g/f (non-rice)bread recipe that is egg-free (or uses egg replacer). Is there such a thing? Has anyone dared try it with this recipe? :) If anyone has ideas or links, please let me know.

Thanks for these GF recipes Julie! We just found out the GI issues my Oma has been suffering from for the last 15 years are all due to a gluten allergy. Being mennonite it is a big deal that she can't make all the things she used to, especially bread and buns! I have been looking for GF versions of her favourites (platz now taken care of thanks to you), but have yet to find a fleisch perishky or snowman bun (those in your title picture, not sure what their real name is) substitute. Do you have any gluten free roll recipes up your sleeve???

I make mine in the bread machine. Combine dry and wet ingredients separately. Pour wet into bread machine, turn machine on to rapid cycle and pour in the dry as the kneader is mixing. I remove the kneader after the last kneading cycle which is about 30 min. on my bread machine on rapid cycle. Rapid cycle is 2hrs 20min. Comes out great! Jenn

A couple of years ago my brother and I both found out at about the same time we are Celiac, (runs in the family).This looks like it would make better pancakes than corn meal or rice do, they make better flapjacks.Thanks a bunch for the receipe Ric

Thank you for posting this recipe. My husband was delighted to eat a "normal size" sandwich on delicious bread that didn't need toasting! Now I make it in my Cuisinart bread machine on the gluten-free setting. I put the liquids in first, followed by the flour mix except for the yeast which goes on top. I find it best to have the liquids at room temperature and I have to help the mix along every so often while it's mixing by scraping the sides into the middle and making sure the flour is mixed in. Certainly the best gluten-free bread I've made so far!

Oh my goodness, I just made this bread last night and it is the first gluten free bread that I've tried that has actually risen, made normal size bread, and hasn't been super 'heavy'!! I didn't have white bean flour so i used garbanzo bean flour instead and it turned out fine. also, I think next time i'm going to replace the rice flour with millet or oat flour and maybe add a bit of almond extract- sometimes rice flour makes breads taste a bit too plain for my taste...but i'm someone who always ate the "twelve grain" type bread before I found out i had to go gluten free:)

Julie, thanks for all you are doing for the gluten-free community! ... Have used this recipe three times and now have a flour combination that the *kids* will eat. Use Great Northern beans for the bean flour. (The garbanzo flour worked fine only if the bread was used for croutons.) Made 1/2 c. of Oat flour and reduced the bean and rice flours 1/4 c. each. Flavor turned out good without a "beany" smell. Now, to perfect the baking technique! Suggestions on which bread maker to purchase are appreciated!

My son LOVES this bread! I've made it into cinnamon bread and plain with 2 Tbs. Flax meal in it. I used the plain loaf for french toast and he gobbled it up. I made a batch and a half which made 2 nice big loaves. Merry Christmas and thanks for all the GF recipes!

I made this bread again yesterday. Made a small loaf with little chunks of cheese in it and it turned out GREAT!!! Also made some hamburger buns in a small foil pie plate with 1/2 cup of the better/dough. My son used it for a pulled pork sandwich and was thrilled that it looked like the rest of ours. Thanks again so much for this great recipe!

Anonymous... I have found that it works best with not doubling ... I don't know why that is ... maybe for you it would work fine! and Yes.. temp. baking would remain the same for smaller pans but baking time would have to be adjusted, since a smaller pan would brown quicker.

The substitution of Garbonza bean flour would work fine as long as you don't mind the bean flavor. If you don't like it, grind your own white bean (small white beans /Navy beans -found in any grocery store) flour in a coffee grinder.. grind/sift/grind/sift until flour does not feel gritty between fingers.

Made this bread this evening, subbing sorghum flour for the brown rice. To me there is a bit of "beany" taste, but the texture is RIGHT ON!!! I think I can tinker to help with the "beaniness"...maybe I am overly sensitive to that taste. (-: Anyway, looking forward to using this recipe and playing with it! Thanks so much!!

Hi Ginger .... I'm happy the bread was somewhat of a success for you ... I don't care for the sorghum flour taste, I prefer millet .. you could try that .. and if you used commercial white bean flour it does taste much more 'beany' than if you grind your own from the grocery store white beans. I really don't like a beany taste...if I taste my white bean flour there is only a very faint aftertaste of bean which is gone in the baked product. Good luck in tweeking the recipe to something you love!!!

Someone said you can get white bean flour in Canada (at least in Alberta and Ontario). As stated "Bob's Red Mill" brand makes it and it is sold in little plastic bags, often in the health food or organic sections of supermarkets (Safeway, Farm Boy, Sobeys etc.) and also in some health food stores. My husband was diagnosed as a Celiac many years ago and we're always on the lookout for these things. Hope this helps! Julie - thanks so much for this recipe!

Thank you for your comment, Anonymous ! I appreciate it ! I just searched the Canadian Red Bob Mill web site and they do not show the White Bean Flour -- The only White Bean Flour mix I have found anywhere (any brand) has other beans mixed in with it -- and the reason I like white bean flour is if I grind it myself ensuring nothing else is mixed in with it, it has a very mild flavour - not beany at all ! I do NOT like a bean flavor in my baking. Hopefully, soon we will be able to easily find both White Bean Flour and White Corn Flour -- both of which at this point are difficult to find.

I, like Elisabeth, need wheat AND corn free. Anyone know what I can replace the corn starch with? I usually have potato starch and tapioca starch, but I am not sure how much or if they would work. Thanks!

Julie: I made this last night and although it gets an "A" for taste and an "A+" for softness, I had trouble with the rising. After 1 hr, it hadn't risen past the pan but I decided to bake it anyhow (I thought it would be flat) but it rose amazingly during baking --- double its height and far out of the pan. But once I took it out of the oven, it fell and the middle is slightly wet (or squishy). The batter looked thick enough (any thicker and it would have stayed in balls like cookie dough!) -- but this sounds like what you mention happens if it is too thin. It looked very brown on the top (dark, almost too brown), but was it undercooked? Any suggestions before I try it again?

Dear 'tacmom', I find that gf bread tends to fall a little when it is taken out of the oven.. (that is normal) but it shouldn't be soggy. One tip I have learned recently is that too much xanthan gum causes bread to fall- pull together. If your bread pulled in on the sides or up from the bottom that could be why - so just use a little less. If it was just the top and it looked well browned.. maybe lowering your oven temp. a little and/or let it sit in the pan for a few minutes before removing might help. Also letting it rise less time in the pan...if it seems to have stopped rising in the pan, stick it in the oven and as you saw it will finish rising in the oven. Letting it sit too long in a 'not moving' state in the pan seems to encourage it to fall after baking. Don't know if that will help .. but let me know. GF baking is sometimes unpredictable and my bread falls on occasion too for no reason that I know!

I Love bread too! But it has really been a large cause of my health issues. I still sneak some bread, but it only hurts me. I am sick of that stuff you get in the store. I can not wait to try your recipes.I can't wait to get the cook book either.

Dear Anonymous... Its hard to tell what went wrong - I'm sorry it didn't turn out for you ! Are you sure you are baking long enough ?

One trick (that I discovered recently) that might be your solution is to put your loaves into a 400' oven for the first 5 minutes of baking and then turn the oven temp. down to 350 degrees. The initial high heat will 'set' the loaf before it can rise higher than it can hold itself.

I made this bread yesterday, it turned out very well, tasted great.I did run into a few problems.I put my milk in the bowl, then didn't watch my recipe close enough and added only 3/4 cup of water. After beating it it was still too thinso U added 1/3 cup Quinoa flour. Worked well. I made 1 large loaf, baked it about 55 minutes. I'm not sure what would have happened if I would have added the cup of water, made a note to add less water. I'm from Alberta, but I don't think that should have made such a difference, Will definitely make it again! Erika

A couple questions-- 1) What coffee grinder do you use? We bought a $15 one at the store and it burned up after grinding 1 cup of the white beans and 1/2 cup of the brown rice. Had to return the grinder and buy store brown rice flour to get the last 1/2 cup for the recipe. Looking into getting a nut grinder but boy are they expensive. 2) I know I can substitute soy milk for the milk, but my son's allergies do not allow him to eat the apple cider vinegar AND the olive oil? I'm assuming I can substitute regular oil for the olive oil but he can't have anything with vinegar in it so not sure what to do with that. I made this for the rest of us to try--my husband wants to stop eating wheat just to see if he will lose weight and he wants us to join in his experience. I was surprised that my oldest son and I actually liked it--we are VERY picky eaters. He hasn't tried it yet, so will see what he thinks.

Diana, sorry about your coffee grinder ! some do burn up quicker than others... mine has no name on it and I forget what brand it is - I have used it for a long time -- although I now have a Wonder Mill to do my grinding which is lovely! but , yes , expensive! One thing you could try is substituting another bean flour that is commercially available - I'd suggest chick pea flour. I don't grind my own brown rice flour since it is not expensive to buy and so readily available. And don't worry about the vinegar, just leave it out, and any oil is fine instead of the olive oil.

This recipe looks great. I bought white bean flour a few months ago to try it and I have not done much with it. My family is also allergic to tapioca so I will have to substitute more cornstarch or potato starch. My family finds xanthan gum hard to digest so I am glad you lowered the amount I always do that to my recipes. Nice pictures hope my bread comes out as well. I will definetly make this since I am out of sorghum flour and have to wait til I get it in the mail. Thanks.

Instead of more cornstarch or potato starch, try using Arrowroot Powder instead of Tapioca starch/flour.... it substitutes very well with no change needed in liquid/dry ingredients ratio. Hope this works for you !

Hi , Julie I have baked your bread twice now and love it It holds together nicely and toasts well also I have a problem with the rising of the bread. When I rise the bread ifor an hour as stated in the recipe, it ends up overflowing the pan and all down the sides of the pan and bottom of my oven , so I have to clean up the pan and oven before baking .Why is this happening to my bread ? I flooow the recipe as written so I don,t know why . I do find the dough quite runny so I was wondering if I should cut back on the milk . Thank You

Dear Anonymous ... you obviously have 'perfect' rising temps for your dough -- don't let it go longer than the time it takes it to rise 3 times the original lump. If you feel its too runny (humidity plays havoc with gf yeast recipes!) try holding back a little of the milk and see if you are happier with the end product. Happy baking!

I have attempted many, MANY loaves of gluten free bread and always come back to this one. I use honey for the sweetener and a bit more molasses than called for. I also made one medium loaf and 4 buns using English muffin rings. So nice to have a good bun for a burger! My husband suggested par-baking this in a pizza pan for pizza crust. I think I will try this idea next. Thank you for all of your work with GF recipes. It is much appreciated.

Hello...looking forward to trying this recipe however confused, there is no mentioning of yeast in ingredients list but mentioned in directions. How much yeast do I need, and what brand....thank you :)

It really is .... gluten free bread batter HAS to be beaten well for several minutes ... A hand held beater just isn't strong enough ... you need the paddle attachment on a stand mixer. I'm sorry! Maybe watch for a good sale?